How to Enable Intel VT and AHCI on a Napa/Santa Rosa platform Phoenix BIOS Vaio laptop

Since this thread is specifically about enabling VT and AHCI, I doubt if you will get any response about 4gb support. I suggest you start a thread about that topic.

Gary

 

Any changes in the VT-code of VGN-FZ31M ?
Is it still 02D0 ??
Gonna try this issue tomorrow evening...

Thanks to everyone for finding solution for a serious problem from SONY !!

 

Any changes known to this group have been posted to the master list. They key to finding the correct location is the version of the BIOS. If the FZ41M is listed in the master list, compare your BIOS version with the one in the list. If they match, you're good to go.

Gary

 

Thanks, Gary !
THE MASTER LIST did the job!!
Virtualization with 64bit, just EXCELLENT !

 

Glad it worked for you.

Gary

 

Very sorry to attempt to hijack this thread; google routed me here while searching for these answers, but for a Toshiba laptop with Phoenix BIOS and no AHCI. Anyone know if there is a similar list or procedure to get it working for that brand? I would not have posted this here, except that the notebookreview search box found nothing, and then just to verify it was working as I thought it should, I searched for "Sony enable AHCI" and it didn't find this fantastic thread at all either so I figured I'd ask a human. Again, my apologies!

 

I know this sounds like a newbie question, but when I boot into dos from my usb and type symcmos-v2-ldefault.txt.. I get an invalid error message. I also type Dir and symcmos.exe doesn't show up on my usb. It is on my bootable dos usb. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Could it be that I'm running linux?

 

There needs to be a space in front of each dash.

Just telling us you get an invalid error message doesn't really tell us anything, we need to know exactly what the message said.

If symcmos.exe does not show up when you type dir, then symcmos.exe is NOT in the current directory of whatever device you booted DOS from. It really is that simple.

Finally, I have no idea at all what "Could it be that I'm running linux", means.

Gary

 

Gary.. By Linux I meant that I created a freedos boot stick with UNetBootin. My Vaio is VGN-AR730e with R2080J8. When I boot from the FreeDos stick I get 5 option. Install to HDD, Safe Mode (no drivers), A couple modes with different drivers and last is to just run Live cd. I don't want to install, so I tried the live cd and get "Invalid Opcode at(long string of numbers)" in which I have to ctrl+alt+del out of. Safe mode gives me the A\: command line which is my bootable usb stick. I then type symcmos -v2- ldefault.txt I get "Bad command or filename- symcmos".
Typing Dir it shows all the FreeDos files and the directories that are on my bootable stick, but no symcmos.exe which shows up on my usb stick when I boot back into Linux. I have tried 3 different sysmcmos.exe downloads including the link from this forum with no luck. Sorry for being so vague.

 

That's the issue. Don't use FreeDOS. Create true DOS bootable USB drive and then put symcmos on it.

Gary

 

Thank you for your help Gary. FreeDos was a no-go. I had to create boot usb from a friends windows install and use Win98boot. If you would sir add VGN-AR730E with R2080j8.. VT-x successfully enabled. I'm now running Snow Leopard in VirtualBox on my Linux Lappy!! Many Thanks.

 

Added to the master list.

Thanks for the update,

Gary

 

Hi someone knows the code for ahci enabled in vaio ar series?
Thanks

 

Hi everyone, I am sorry for this necropost but this is the only forum with competent people I could find.

I Have a sony VGN-FE28B with BIOS R0174J3 and Win7 32bit
I set the AHCI register 0F6 and it worked!
BUT
VT register 0195, set to 1, does not enable Virtualization
I tried rebooting, shutting down, waiting some time, and I often checked if the register chaged to 0..... nothing...

register 0195 (which is the right register for my bios) is set to 1 but I still don't have Virtualization funcionality

What can I do?

Another info: Laptop battery is dead and disconnected, the laptop is connected only with the power supply, CMOS battery is functional, though ...

I need Virtualization for my bachelor's thesis I don't want to buy a new PC

thanks for your attention

does anyone have a working dump file so I can upload it just to be sure?

ps. I also tried to reset default settings, then try again changing only the VT register

EDIT:
I upgraded my bios to R0200J3 and tried again every step from the very beginning, AHCI works and VT not

 

We have no reports for a VGN-FE28B model. But if you updated the BIOS to R0200J3 then the VT setting should work. Have you verified that the register is indeed set to 01? Take another dump of the BIOS and look at the register, is it set to 00 or 01?

Gary

 

Hi there,
my SZ2M/B is shipped with the r0083n0 bios. It was bought in Italy in the November of 2006, few weeks before the SZ3 series came out. Admittedly, my model is pretty rare but that adds coolness to it.
I have tried several interrupts with this bios, including the one (0393) listed in the japanese forum. This does not work. I repeat: the 0393 interrupt does not switch VT on. Please update the list accordingly.
However, SZ2M/B update correctly to later bioses.

(I had several issues when trying to update the bios. First, all versions of phlash do not work with these bioses, including the original one. If you end with a message complaining 'not signature found in platform' or something like that you know what I mean. I put this down because on the web this point is very confusing - I do not think you can actually use phlash with sony bios roms, at least on this model. You have to use wbflash, which is shipped with the autoinstall EXE provided by sony, in a windows environment provided with the following software: (i) sony shared library and (ii) sony utils DLLs. You find these packages in the Utils.zip. If you are using your vaio with windows you are probably already set up but if you are using other oses, you have to install windows with all this stuff.)

Tried bioses:

1. R0112N0, which is shipped with SZ6. However, switching to 0001 the 0354 doesn't enable VT. If you scroll down the brightness the monitor turn black and you have to reboot the computer.
I read somewhere that r0091s5 bios fixes this issue but, as this is intended for SZ6 model, I have not tried this latest bios on my SZ2. Maybe it is stupid, but I only trusted bioses ending in N0. Someone may correctly explain this point.
2. R0096N0. This works pretty well, as this is very similar to R0083N0. Indeed, this is the bios shipped with the SZ3, afak. Unfortunately, changing to 0001 the 399 interrupts doesn't turn VT on but seems to disable the external boot and set the logo volume to 4. Or maybe the bios does not accept the new conf and reverts to default. Who knows?
3.r0112n0 - unlocked. This means that I have an entry in the bios from which I can control a lot of things, such as fan, video and system memory, integrated nic, ahci... However, an entry for VT is missing!

Summary: I have tried three different bioses and no one of them seem to support the vt feature. Maybe the SZ2 model has different interrupts or it does not have the vt feature at all (see the strange behavior with r00960 and the point three).

Please someone helps.

 

I don't see that we have 0393 listed on any of the SZ models, so I am not sure what you are suggesting being updated. As for trying another model's BIOS, that is VERY risky and not recommended. You risk bricking your system.

Gary

 

No, but the bios shipped with my sz2 is listed in the master list. It is labelled 'need to test' and information are taken from a japanese site.
Anyway, the r096n0 is an official update from sony website for sz2:

Sony : Aggiornamenti VGN-SZ2M/B | Download aggiornamenti per VGN-SZ2M/B

The point is: why does the 0393 fail to enable the VT on my system with this bios, which is said to be working with other models?

I read that some Yonah model do not support the virtualization feature:

Intel VT-x supported by: all models except T2050, T2250, T2300E, T2350, T2450 (from wikipedia)

How can I check my cpu model?

Thank you anyway,

 

Couldn't sift trough all the pages to check if anyone gave any reply to you.

I can't thank you enough, I flashed v2 and works fine, menu is there. Cheers man, wherever you are.

 

I have SONY-SZ780. I tried logging though the windows XP command prompt and ran following command
symcmos -V2 -L

I am getting 0 byte file LITERAL.TXT.

Please guide. Any quick help is highly appreciated.

 

You need to go back and re-read the directions in the very first message. You must create a bootable DOS diskette (or possibly a USB stick) to work from. You are NOT able to do this from a DOS prompt.

Gary

 

anyone maybe found out what the code is for AHCI for the FZ31Z?

 

What BIOS version does it have?

Gary

 

My vaio FZ31Z has bios version R2110J7 but nvm its been fixed.

No need to change anything. It automatically switches to AHCI when inserting an ssd and installing a clean windows 7 on it.

 

Hello,
I can't boot from my usb stick, theres no option in the boot menu, only the dvd rom and the hdd.
I enabled external boot in the bios and created a bootable USB drive with rufus 1.20 and FreeDos, I also tried a DOS bootable USB-Drive with command.com, io.sys und msdos.sys and symcmos.exe.
Laptop is a vaio vgnfe21b and stick a transcend 8gb.
I replaced the old 80gb hdd for a sandisk ssd 64gb, but sometimes the laptops doesn't recognize it and says: "no operation system found", so I want to activate AHCI? Or is it not necessary?
Sorry 4 bad english.

 

If there is an external boot option in the bios, there must be a way to enable booting from devices other than dvd and hdd. I don't have a FE model to look at the BIOS options, but suspect on the page where you select the boot device, there is a way to add a device to the list. Can you take a photo of that screen with a camera and post it here?

Gary

 

Here are the pictures:
http://www.abload.de/img/imag0256m4s8n.jpg
http://www.abload.de/img/imag0257ppsm9.jpg
http://www.abload.de/img/imag0258tbsap.jpg

In the boot menu, if u press esc, there are only 3 options:
1. Boot from HDD
2. Boot from Internal Drive

<Enter Setup> (It only jumps in the bios).



Do u have a good tutorial for a bootable usb stick?

 

The begining of this thread has links for setting up a bootable usb stick. Can you take another photo of the right side of the screen shown in your third image? It shows the instructions for that screen. Are you able to test your usb stick on another machine first? If so, I would make sure it works, then have it plugged in when you go to the bios screen.

Gary

 

In the third screen isn't an instruction, or do u mean an other image?
The problem is, that the two tutorials in the startpost don't work for me.
In the first is the file "2880KB disk of the Beta 9 Service Release 2." not available and in the second the hp tool doesn't copy the files on the usb drive.
I've tested it on an other laptop and it doesn't showed in the boot menu. So the stick is the first problem.

 

sorry, I meant the second screen. You will have to google for creating a bootable usb stick, I used the hp stuff.

Gary

 

Other than the minor irritation of finding alternative locations for the bootable USB key software, everything went well the first time.

I like the comfort of knowing that regardless of what values you try, ultimately you can recover by disconnecting the CMOS battery to forget the NVRAM settings.

Model: Sony VGN-FZ150E
BIOS: Phoenix R0040J7 (no BIOS downloads to be found anywhere on Sony sites, either original or updates - Shame, Sony, shame!)
CPU Intel T7300 2Ghz
VT-x: ( 02D3) - same as model 130E, 140E and 160E with same BIOS level that are already documented. I thought there may have been a consistent pattern!
I didn't bother with the other AHCI setting - don't need it at the present.

As an aside for others that may be wondering, I tried booting from Vista 'command prompt' mode and tried to run symcmos from there. No luck! You do have to make DOS bootable media and run the utilities from there. Make sure you spell everything exactly as documented.

Gibson Research 64bit discovery tool securable.exe confirms that all is well.

Ultimate test: VmWare now runs in VT mode!

Please update your master chart for the FZ-150E.

Next VT-x project: Medion E7212 sitting in the corner looking lonely. Any hints or pointers would be welcome.

Try going back and repeat step 3 in the first post - this should fix this problem.

Given the ability to create a totally dead doorstop out of your beloved laptop that could cost a lot of time or money to remedy, I would have thought that following precise instructions to the letter, including spaces, capitalisation, and ticking off each step would have been a certainty. If you're not sure what you're doing, ask somebody that does.</enter>

 

List updated!

Thanks,
Gary

 

Hello, friends!
Sorry for my english, i'm from Russia.

I have a US model Sony Vaio VGN-TXN25n
Bios version R0051N3
VT register - 0357

And many thanks for this guide!

 

I have a SVE14AE13L. I have an i7-3632qm that supports intel vt-x but I do not know how to enable it. I do not know what bios I have. I rebooted my laptop but I do not get a screen that tells me what button to hit to enter the bios or even boot prompts.

Can someone help me?

 

Hello,

I tried it on Sony Vaio VGN-NR21Z/S with Phoenix bios version R1150J9 and it worked with vt-x register 02D0

Thanks.
Bye,

Andrea

 

Laptop Sony VGN-SZ340P BIOS was updated to R0112N0 (original version of BIOS was R0096N0).

After enabling VT and AHCI new SSD drive was installed. 4GB total memory was installed also.


Please add Sony VGN-SZ 340P model to the list.

 

Hello, I want to enable VT on my Sony Vaio VGN-N250E/b Notebook. My BIOS version is R0070J4 (Date: December 6, 2006). I am using Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit. [Specs: 160 GB Solid State Drive (Intel Sata2 X25-M), 2 GB RAM, CPU: {upgraded} Intel T2700 2.33GHz, Motherboard Model: MBX-160]. Please note I have upgraded a lot of my laptop's hardware, these are not the normal specs of a VGN-N250E/b. My notebook's previous CPU (Intel T2250) did not support VT. The new CPU does support VT however. Please tell me if you need a bios dump.

View attachment DEFAULT.TXT

 

Never mind, I found the NVRAM register myself. The register to enable Intel VT-x on BIOS version R0070J4 is 0318. I also found an interesting screen upon messing with the registers. I changed the 04CE - 04F2 registers and got a screen called PhoenixBIOS Setup Utility, at the bottom of the screen it says "Press any key to continue", after a few seconds it automatically proceeds to boot Windows whether or not you press any key to continue. I am attaching a picture of this screen. Please tell me if you know anything about it. I am going to keep on testing this BIOS to see of there is anything else in the NVRAM that could be of interest (such as enabling the BIOS options in Sony VAIO BIOS's so we can easily change a lot more things without much difficulty). Edit:
The Register to enable AHCI mode on BIOS version R0070J4 is 00FC.
The Service/Repair Mode Register is 039F.
The Enable USB HDD Boot Register is 04D4.

View attachment 92900

 

Lovelord, sorry for the [very] late response. I just found out today what the register for enabling Intel VT-x on the R0070J4 is. Register 0318 will enable/disable VT-x. You MUST press and hold the power button to turn off the computer before this can be applied. Don't using any keyboard shortcuts or reboot. Please note that I have upgraded my VGN-N250E/b notebook to the most powerful type of CPU that it will allow (I think), the T2700 (2.33GHz dual-core). This CPU does support VT, the CPU that you are using (which is also my laptop's old CPU) does NOT support VT-x.

 

I upgraded my Sony VGN-N11SR with Intel T7200 CPU. BIOS revision is R0030J4. Is it possible to enable VT in BIOS?

 

Look at the provided list. If the BIOS version is there, then yes you can. If the BIOS version is not listed, I have no idea if you can or not. I rely on other folks to report their findings and I maintain the list accordingly.

Gary

 

To: vasya99

Yes, it is possible to enable Intel VT-x for your current CPU. Give me a dump of your BIOS and I can find the register to enable VT-x. I can also find other options such as AHCI if you want.

 

Ignore my previous post, I found a BIOS update version of your BIOS online, the register to enable VT-x should be 030C for the R0030J4 BIOS. If you want to enable AHCI as well, the register should be 00FC .

 

Gary, can you update the master list with the following data:

The register to enable VT-x in the R0070J4 BIOS is 0318

 

Is that the only line to edit? and what do i edit it to? I changed the value in that line from [0000] to [0001] and nothing happened

I then added to that the edit of line 015C and made the value "1" and still nothing.

What am I missing?

I have a VGN-CR220E and Phoenix bios R1121Q0 which is listed as working.

It should cause this setting to be editable in the bios right?

 

First, you need to follow the instructions in the first message EXACTLY as stated for this to work. Did you do that? Did you take a second snapshot of the BIOS and verify that the change actually occurred? Experimenting by adding a second change is NOT a good idea, you can easily brick your machine by changing the wrong location.

Second, once the change is completed correctly, it will NOT make the setting editable in the BIOS. It will just turn on VT. You can use the GRC website as discussed in the first message to verify if VT is on or not. But you won't find anything in the BIOS UI to indicate it.

This is a VERY old thread and I only answer the occasional question such as yours. I don't even use a SONY laptop anymore. Sorry I can't be more help.

Gary

 

My Vaio is still running strong as it ever has after 6yrs. I just keep that heat sink clean. And I run Ubuntu.

Ok, so I cannot see it in the bios.

I did re download the text file to verify the change took place. I did follow the directions except that last verification you mentioned (GRC website). I didn't because I was under the impression it would show in the bios.

 

Thank you Gary, I had success and didn't even know it.

 

Great! Thanks for following up.

Gary

 

NOTE TO ALL PEOPLE WHO'S REGISTER IS _NOT_ ON THE MASTER LIST:
(but want to know which register to edit to enable them)

If you have a "new-style" (most of them should be this, my notebook was made in 2006 and it has a new-style BIOS, just upload and I can tell you) phoenix BIOS in your VAIO machine and you upload/link to your BIOS (you can obtain an image using the Universal BIOS backup dumper in most cases),
I can figure out which registers will enable/disable VT as well as AHCI for your notebook and tell you. You will also need to upload your Default.txt (or whatever you named the file) - this is the NVRAM Token Table dump from symcmos.

The way I do this is by using Default.txt and STRINGS0.ROM/TEMPLAT0.ROM from the extracted BIOS and tracing the tokens to their respective settings.

If you have an old-style BIOS or another that I am currently unable to check, I will tell you. Usually, the size of the BIOS's that I can check are 1MB to 4MB, although that is just a statistic, not a definite yes/no.